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Topic: Pastoral for Couples (Read 830 times)

A friend would like to create in her company some kind of activity to help couples improve their married life. Some of these couples, though, are involved in very serious aggression issues. She has inquired me on what kind of group work could be done to help these couples to save their marriages, to teach husbands to act as proper men, and also some of the wives to respect themselves and their homes. Most of her employees come from the poorest classes in Brazil, with very poor education if any.

Of course, professional councillors and psychologists will be involved, but since she did ask me to help build this, I would like to set some foundational stones related to how we could handle this from an Orthodox Christian approach - of course, most of them are probably in some sort of Evangelical denomination and, if statistics remain the same, to some branch of Assembly of God. The rest probably belong to one of the Afro-Brazilian religions with some agnostics and RCs.

So, is there any reading you recommend? Prayers? Patron saints? Some kind of activity? Language is not a problem since I would adapt the material.

Logged

Many Energies, 3 Persons, 2 Natures, 1 God, 1 Church, 1 Baptism, and 1 Cup. The Son begotten only from the Father, the Spirit proceeding only from the Father, Each glorifying the Other. The Son sends the Spirit, the Spirit Reveals the Son, the Father is seen in the Son. The Spirit spoke through the Prophets and Fathers and does so even today.

Fwiw, I really liked Women and Men in the Early Church: The Full Views of St. John Chrysostom, by David C. Ford, and found it very helpful and applicable to marital issues. The topics covered in this book (using section headings as a guide) are:

1. Differences Between Major Eastern and Western Church Fathers on Women and Sexuality2. St. John Chrysostom's Theology of Marriage3. On Marriage and Virginity4. St. John Chrysostom's View of Women in General5. Order in Creation and in the Godhead6. On the Interrelationship Between the Sexes: In Theory7. The Relationship of Sexes in the Family8. The Interrelationship of the Sexes in the Society at Large9. The Interrelationship of the Sexes in the Church

Now, the book is organized more along the lines of a study of the theology of St. John on these subjects, and not like a pastoral counseling book. Still, like I said, I found it helpful.